Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the arrangement we have is with the Dehcho Health and Social Services Authority who then has a contract in place for delivery of these services with the Nats'ejee K'eh Society. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, is our government directly, or perhaps through the health authority, involved in any

way with the negotiations or the framework for negotiations with the workers?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're not directly involved with the negotiations or the board in this area. We are monitoring the situation as things progress. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, are negotiations in fact underway at this time? We're now two days into the disruption of service there, and what steps will we take, Mr. Speaker, to ensure that what I would say is an essential service is restored as soon as possible, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what we've done to date is I've just signed off a letter to the organizations, both parties, to urge them to get back to negotiations. From the side of delivery of services, we are prepared for those who are seeking support in the area of addictions help, that we would ensure that services are available to them whether in the territory or out of the territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've been handed a note by the president of the Renewable Resource Council in Tulita in terms of community freezers. I want to ask the honourable Brendan Bell if he has any idea as to my question here in terms of the community has been promised, similar to Paulatuk, community freezers for individuals or families that need it. So I want to ask the Minister if he's aware of such a promise, maybe by the previous government or the previous administration, in terms of community freezers for the community members in Tulita.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me say that no, I was not aware of a commitment made in that regard, if one was made. A little bit of history, Mr. Speaker. I think in the mid-90s there were 17 communities who had community freezers and I think some of them had more than more, but certainly not more than two. At that point, the government made a decision to get out of funding the O and M for these community freezers for a variety of reasons. Cost was one of them. Upkeep was another. When freezers fail, obviously the entire community's subsistence harvest can be lost, Mr. Speaker. So we looked at a number of arrangements and they varied by community. As we've heard earlier, in Paulatuk and in Holman a commitment was made to move to chest freezers that individuals would take care of. In other communities, the facilities were sold to the community. My understanding is, Mr. Speaker, that in Tulita an arrangement was made with the community to sell the freezer for $1, but I don't have all of the history on this. I'd certainly be willing to instruct my officials to sit down and go back and revisit this if there's a feeling there was some commitment that was made and not lived up to. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would ask if the Minister would continue on with this commitment to look into this issue and come back to the people in Tulita in terms of looking at the options of what they were promised. People in the community knew and had asked me. They said there was a promise made and to date nothing has ever come about in terms of our community freezers. Maybe something where they have chest freezers, I believe they're called. So they're waiting for a promise to be fulfilled by this government.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We will certainly sit down. I'll have the regional staff sit down with the community. The information I've been provided if we feel the commitment to sell the freezer was made. In other communities, there were one-time payments made for chest freezers. Those payments have concluded. So really it is a variety of solutions in a number of communities. But we will go back. If there was a commitment made and we have not lived up to that, we will. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A promise made, a promise kept. Mr. Speaker, promises where it's going to be he said, she said, they said. You know, it's going to get into this craziness. So I would ask the Minister if he would instruct his staff to come to Tulita, talk to the people who heard and who acknowledge that a promise was made in terms of having community freezers in Tulita. I would ask the Minister if he could do that within the next week or so. Go to Tulita and talk to the people there in terms of what type of promises were made in terms of providing them with some form of freezer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly I will ask the regional staff to visit Tulita, talk to the community leadership about what they feel the promises were. We do have records going back. I'm not sure we have the specific discussions, and the Member is right; we don't want to get into a you promised, he said, she said debate. Clearly, we can't afford to give everybody in the Northwest Territories a freezer, so we do have to go back to the arrangements that were made and the commitments that were made. We will do that, Mr. Speaker. I give the Member my commitment in that regard. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if we had resource revenue sharing we could give everybody two freezers in the whole Northwest Territories.